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Anya Evans
=I have as much rage as you have= Full name: Anya Evans (Mular Kitsunov) Height: 5'10" Hair: dark brown Eyes: brown Occupation: mercenary =I've lived as much hell as you have= The child Anya Mular knew very little about her heritage. Her mother, Nina, told her that she was born somewhere in Barovia. Her father, whose name she never learned, was Invidian. Apparently, he told Nina to leave before their child was born, concerned over the increasingly racist politics of the country. Nina never disclosed why Anya’s father could not come with them. Nina’s clan, the Kamii, never completely forgave her for getting involved with a non-Vistani, but nevertheless accepted her daughter as much as they could. (It wasn't very much.) (If you're not familiar with Ravenloft, the Vistani are basically the world's version of the fictionalized, magical Roma that appear in gothic fiction. Someone needs to explain the werewolf curse? Someone needs to warn you not to go up to the castle? They're there. It's a living.) Anya was a bit of a loner, both by temperament, and by choice. This did not prevent her, however, from learning metalworking, the vocation of the Kamii. Anya showed a talent for it, and became quite a promising weapon smith. Her only problem was a wanderlust, increased by her problems with the moon, that made her even more restless than the other members of her caravan. This frustrated her teachers endlessly, but her finished products were always good enough to assuage their anger. (Her hands, as you would expect, hold the burns from her profession.) When she was eight years old, she encountered her first incident with racism outside the Vistani. Her kumpania was visiting a rather large town in Southern Nova Vaasa, and Anya had wandered off, as she was fascinated with anything resembling a city. A couple of young men cornered her and verbally abused her for several minutes. Though she did not understand their language, Anya picked up on the threat of physical assault, and so (being the right height) punched one in the balls and managed to escape through cleverness and luck. After this incident, which she was too proud to tell anyone about, she convinced her older uncles, cousins, and extended family that she should learn how to fight. She was a quick study, and although she was impatient with things like languages and magic, she quickly became quite a good fighter, and even learned to fight two-handed. As she grew up, her prowess was improved by the knowledge smithing gave her of armory, allowing her to create swords with a weight and balance that suited her. When Anya was 15, her mother married an older man in the tribe, named Rudolpho. Anya never took his surname, as she barely knew the man, certainly no more than she knew anyone else in the clan. However, with her husband, Nina got ideas of marrying off her daughter. About a year after their wedding, Anya overheard her mother and stepfather discussing the problems of trying to get any Vistani man to marry a half-breed, and Anya needed no further pretense to finally leave. She packed some belongings and set out for Darkon, without saying farewell to anyone. One night, about a month after leaving the Vistani, Anya was staying in a Darkonese inn when she felt a cold tingling sensation. She had felt it before, but always when she was surrounded by other people, and so had little opportunity to pay attention to it. Now, alone in the room, she concentrated, trying to discover the cause. This triggered her ability of ethereal empathy, and she discovered that a woman had been raped and murdered in the room, leaving an impression of fear, pain, and hatred upon the place. Anya quickly checked out of the inn. Her ability frightened her, so most of the time, she chose to ignore the warning signs. Eventually, she made it to the city of Paridon. It quickly became apparent that Vistani were not frequent visitors. Although at first she was unable to understand anyone, she was eventually pointed, through universal sign language, to a gathering place (of the Divinity of Mankind, it turned out). An older, authoritative looking woman attempted to speak with her, and then touched Anya’s forehead when it became apparent she didn’t speak the language. Suddenly, Anya realized she could understand the inhabitants of the city. This served her until she could actually learn Zherisian. The woman introduced herself as Celebrant Agatha Clairmont. Anya simply gave her first name (although several weeks later, she adopted the surname Evans). Agatha explained the beliefs of the celebrants, and welcomed Anya to the city on the condition she could pull her weight, due to the food shortages. Pleased by the notion that she was not considered inferior, Anya decided to give the city a try. Through Agatha, Anya was able to work with a local weapon smith, who quickly realized her skill, though her style was foreign to him. In several months, she rented her own portion of the forge and was able to support herself. However, Anya’s natural propensity to wander made her keep odd hours, and sometimes she would disappear for weeks on end. During these periods, she would practice survival in the city as a sort of game. Celebrant Agatha and others were not enthusiastic about Anya’s freedom-loving ways, but though Anya was pleased to know she could better herself, she had little desire to actually do so. Though she did not dress openly as a Vistani, she did not dress like a woman of Paridon either, as she found it impractical. Therefore she became something of an institution in the city, although she maintained an uncanny ability to blend into a crowd if necessary. The Paridon watch, though governmentally funded, was often short-staffed and so hired deputies out of the general population. Anya’s fighting and urban survival skills made her an ideal candidate, and much to her surprise, she found she enjoyed the work, though she would never commit to a permanent job on the force, even if it were offered. However, she took jobs there quite often, as it appealed to her sense of adventure, and it made the celebrants happy, as she was giving back to society. On the watch, she met Sir Ambrose Willoughby. Though a member of the aristocracy, Ambrose voluntarily joined the force, which made him both respected and something of an outsider. He was working as a detective, and Anya was assigned to be his assistant. They worked exceedingly well together, and so she continued to help him regularly. Ambrose’s charisma and Anya’s ability to gather information complemented each other quite nicely. Anya respected him immensely, in part because of his skill, but also because he respected her from the outset, though she was a foreigner and half his age. (At the time they met, she was barely 17, and he was in his early thirties). They quickly move from co-workers to true friends. After working together for two years, Anya and Ambrose discovered “things” that can escape through gratings and are mildly humanoid living in the sewers. One year later, there was an incident in which Anya, Ambrose, and some other agents discover some tentacled creatures living in an abandoned building. Anya only gets a glimpse of them, and lost her lunch. Ambrose got a better look, and quickly resigned from the force and left the country. He had a ranch in Nova Vassa, where he went to recuperate. While he was gone, he and Anya corresponded. When Anya was 23, Ambrose did return, though he did not rejoin the watch. Around this period, Celebrant Agatha expressed concern that her correspondence with Dr. Rudolph Van Richten had ceased, and after about a year of silence, was truly alarmed. Ambrose departed for the Core once again, and although she was much too proud to say so, Anya wished he wouldn’t go. Before he left, Ambrose told her privately “Always be on watch for the Celebrants of Mankind. A philosophical cabal is a cabal nonetheless.” It was at this moment that her infatuation with the Celebrants abruptly ended. She realized something fishy had been going on with them, but had been so happy for their acceptance (and incidentally, the ability to give others the “too bad you’re not one of us” look she had been subjected to so often) that she had been ignoring it. She silently cursed her stupidity, although she could not completely cut herself off from Agatha. After all, Agatha had given her a start in Paridon. Ambrose promised to write, and he rode off once more. When Anya was 26, the watch became increasingly disorderly after its former head's breakdown. Anya was needed more and more often, and felt a bit suffocated. She took to disappearing for longer periods again, as her need for freedom often trumped the sense of responsibility she felt to the watch. However, much to her joy, Ambrose returned. He had no news of Van Richten for Celebrant Agatha, but quickly sought Anya out. He informed her he would be leaving hortly for Dementlieu, and asked if she would accompany him. He would enjoy her company, but more urgently, he told her it was unsafe for her to stay in Paridon (he also asked Celebrant Agatha to come, but she refused). Though her feelings about returning to the Core were mixed, ten years in one place had been quite enough, and Ambrose had been one of the few things holding her in Paridon anyway. So she quickly agreed. They traveled through the Core, with and without incident. While in Kartakass, Ambrose stopped and introduced Anya to Hollis Housenbloom, a Kartakan girl he had met in his previous travels. Anya was not at all pleased to learn that the young pretty girl with the long red hair would be accompanying them to Dementlieu. She was less thrilled to learn that the girl knew Mordentish, and would be able to translate for Anya. As Hollis did not know how to ride, Anya choose to deal with her incessant humming rather than let her ride with Ambrose, who was an incorrigible flirt. Hollis ended up alternating riders, however, as Anya’s patience would not last forever. Though Hollis was always friendly, the fact she was Ambrose’s friend was all that kept Anya from being openly hostile. Eventually they arrived. Ambrose introduced Anya and Hollis to Lord Balfour de Casteelle, their host. Early in the autumn, about a week after their arrival, Anya discovered that Lord de Casteelle was throwing a lavish ball, with Ambrose as his guest of honor. As was his privilege, Ambrose brought Anya and Hollis as his guests (increasing Anya’s resentment of Hollis). Though thrilled for her friend, Anya was not thrilled to discover she would have to endure court training and wear a fashionable dress. She suggested that she wear a suit instead, and though the idea amused Ambrose, he told her she needed to follow custom. So Anya began learning basic court manners, struggling to improve her Mordentish, and getting fitted for a gown. During all of this, she was dealing with her feelings for Ambrose. During this trip, she has realized that she had inconveniently fallen in love with him as well. For a variety of reasons, she decided to ignore this as best she could. The ball began a long series of interlocking incidents that led to Anya becoming infected with lycanthropy. She, Ambrose, Hollis, and some others who shared overlapping goals set off in search of a cure. After much fighting and intrigue, they found one in an abandoned fort in Falkovnia, where they also discovered nearly everything Anya's mother had told her about her background was a lie. Her father, Josef Kitsunov, had always had a taste for Vistani women, and rumors of his bastards circulated throughout the country. The emotional strain was too much for Anya, added as it was to nightmares brought on by her unpleasant transformations and the Falkovnian custom of decorating their cities with the corpses of criminals and enemies of the state. Ambrose took care of her as best he could, even accepting her confession that she loved him with calm and grace. Though she was miserable, Ambrose kept her moving. Once they'd cured Anya, the pair headed back to Dementlieu. While finishing up some business, they accepted a commission to clear out a gang of bandits in an abandoned military checkpoint, which planning and surprise allowed them to do with some deftness. That night, on the gold they'd collected, they had an elaborate meal in their suite at the inn; Ambrose finally confessed he loved her too, but had felt he'd be taking advantage to act upon his feelings until she was a bit more stable. The two immediately became lovers. A few nights later, however, Anya followed Ambrose when he snuck off in the middle of the night. He returned to the waystation where they'd killed the bandits; she was shocked and disgusted to find he was carving the bodies up for meat, packing them in cheesecloth in a way that meant he intended to eat it later. He caught her, and explained that he'd adopted the habit among the Voros barbarians; he'd been infected back in Paridon with a wasting disease, and the practice had cured him. Anya, after some pained but brief internal debate, told him that if it saved his life, she couldn't blame him for it, and that she wasn't going to leave him. Shortly after, the pair headed for his ranch in Nova Vaasa, and whatever jobs faced them next. =You were my very own sympathetic character= Taxon stuff TBA * Katiya Willoughby - her grandaughter from the future. Very confusing, as she plans to have no children. * William Adama - she's only met him once, but he made a good impression * Harvestman - her own personal welcoming committee. The jury's still out. =I was afraid of verbal daggers= Michelle Rodriguez, Ambrose Willoughby, and Ravenloft are not mine. Category:Characters Category:Living